We had a very enjoyable meet on Skye, staying at the Torrin Outdoor Centre on Loch Slapin. Showery, blustery weather meant that low level options predominated. The hardier amongst us tried a bit of paddling, cave exploration and wild water swimming.

Mike, Gina and Alan arrived early afternoon on Friday and walked up Ben Cleat from Elgol, descending to Glen Scaladal and then back along the coast path to Elgol. They had great views of the Cuillins from the hill and also the best weather of the weekend.

On Saturday, Michael and Juliet chose to circumnavigate Beinn na Cro by Strath Mor and Strath Beag. Shona ran the same route in reverse after she, Andreas and Annie found the wind a bit fresh for kayaking. Arthur, Richard and Robin indulged in a spot of retailing and lazed in a tea house until a brightening allowed them to dash up Ben Aslak. Later consideration informed them that it had been demoted from Graham status! A late lunch was enjoyably spent watching the ferry and other boat traffic coping with the Kyle Rhea tidal current. Gina and Alan had the most productive day visiting Dun Ringill, exploring the Spar Cave and braving the Allt na Dunaiche for some wild water swimming. Andreas and Annie headed for Spar Cave too after paddling.

Annie organised and cooked an excellent group evening meal with assistance from the group.

The weather didn’t improve much on Sunday. Andreas packed up the kayaks and headed off. Gina and Alan ended up walking out to the lighthouse and sandy beach at Point of Sleat in almost continuous drizzle. The rest of the group set off to check out the new bothy at Camusunary; photo above. The bothy is fine, although disappointingly without a stove as is the case nowadays. It had an selection of graffiti in several languages – fine to hone your language skills whiling away stormy days.

The walk along the coast to Elgol was cut short as the club’s senior office bearer took a tumble, saved only by heather roots. We were not far from the bothy, so regrouped there. The combined wisdom of a hospital consultant, a nurse, two cave rescuers and a veteran mountain rescuer was that we should dope him up with painkillers and keep him walking. Which we did. We then resorted to the delightfully quirky tea shop in Elgol to recuperate. We never found the dog over which the victim claimed to have tripped.